Though they are never named, the four teenaged girls who lead the public torture of Ye Zhetai are important figures in the novel. When Ye Wenjie first encounters them, they represent the dangers of mob mentality: rather than keeping an open mind when Ye Zhetai questions their beliefs, the girls turn to deadly violence in the face of uncertainty. Years later, when Ye Wenjie tracks them down, the girls—now women—have all suffered in the Cultural Revolution, despite their commitment to it. And in fact, it is her exchange with these women, now broken by the very movement they devoted their lives to, that cements Ye’s lack of hope for humanity.
The Revolutionary Girls Quotes in The Three-Body Problem
The The Three-Body Problem quotes below are all either spoken by The Revolutionary Girls or refer to The Revolutionary Girls . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Should philosophy guide experiments or should experiments guide philosophy? […] Truth emerges from experience.
Related Characters:Ye Zhetai (speaker), The Revolutionary Girls , Shao Lin
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
15
Explanation and Analysis:
Even as physics professor Ye Zhetai is brutally tortured by some of his former students (in what was known in the Cultural Revolution as a “struggle session”), he refuses to give up his most deeply held scientific beliefs. Whereas Ye Zhetai’s young, fanatical students want to fit everything to the simplistic version of communism they are fed in government propaganda, their professor understands that true theory most be rooted in real “experience”—and that real experience is much more complex than any mass-marketed “philosophy.” This tension between abstract ideology and lived experience (which also includes “experiment” and first-hand observation) is an Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Ve
Chapter 26
Quotes
There was a movie called Maple recently. I don't know if you've seen it. At the end, an adult and a child stand in front of the grave of a Red Guard who had died during the faction civil wars. The child asked the adult, “Are they heroes?” The adult says no. The child asked, “Are they enemies?” The adult again says no. The child asks, “Then who are they?” The adult says, “history.”
Related Characters:The Revolutionary Girls (speaker), Ye Wenjie
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
302
Explanation and Analysis:
After a painful reunion with her mother Shao Lin, Ye tracks down the group of revolutionary girls who had tortured and ultimately killed her father. But rather than feeling purely angry or self-righteous, Ye is shocked to see just how much these girls, too, have been hurt by the Cultural Revolution: they have lost limbs, families, and even each other (there are only three now where once there were four). As the girls explain, after such a prolonged period of violent upheaval, the line between “heroes” and “enemies” is increasingly blurry; the divisions that once seemed so clear are no Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim
The Revolutionary Girls Character Timeline in The Three-Body Problem
The timeline below shows where the character The Revolutionary Girls appears in The Three-Body Problem. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1. The Madness Years
A group of two college-aged men and four high school girls accosts Ye Zhetai with accusations. When he remains silent, the girls bring Ye Zhetai’s wife,...
(full context)
The girls double down on their interrogation of Ye Zhetai. As they fight over the Big Bang...
(full context)
Chapter 26. No One Repents
Eventually, Ye even managed to locate the revolutionary girls who had murdered her father. When Ye finally met up with them, the women were...
(full context)